ADMIT IT! JANUARY IS, LIKE, SUPER HARD!It can be challenging to get back your pre-holiday work rhythm! All the sweets and treats, all the visiting and cajoling, all the time off and time away, makes a person NOT want to get back to work.I call this Lazy Artist Syndrome.Thankfully YOU can't linger in a state of LAS for long - as YOU have a big bad boss, who is gonna crack the whip on yo' @ss!Well.....right now, I envy you.I am a self-employed person, which means my boss (who is a total whip cracking bitch during show season) is a little lackadaisical right now.NORMALLY, in January, I am gearing up for The Artist Project...a HUGE art trade show.....remember TAP? This is my booth last year:

This year, I decided to NOT do this show - and I think it is this lack of a deadline that led to a serious case of LAS.

I did TAP for an astounding 8 years.....and there were times in the first few years, that I thought I had "made it" as a professional artist! In fact, the first TWO years, I sold out my entire booth! WHAM-O BAM-O! Oh how I miss those days!At the time, I believed that the success would be everlasting....but many years later - I know that an art career is a very fluid thing. I NOW look at my illustrious artist career in the LONG RANGE. A few AMAZING YEARS - a few TERRIBLE years - neither of which necessarily defines my success!

Last year at TAP, I heard a lot of:(insert a hipster 'been there - done that' tone) "Oh, I've seen this guy before!" THAT is not a great thing to hear, so I decided then and there to bow out of the show in 2016 to change things up!

As a result, right now I cannot show you new work. I JUST CAN'T EVEN. There just isn't any. (LAS) BUT I can let you know that I am working on a bunch of new drawings, and have primed and readied a TONNE of new canvas!

That's right, in less than 2 weeks, I will be painting in a brand new space that I will be sharing with 40ish other artists. Here is the glamorous state of my space as it looked like last month:

Now just imagine it filled to the brim with my art...and me!INSTANT BEAUTY!!!​Why did I choose Walnut Studios? Well there are many reasons.1.) TO ESCAPE THE BASEMENT. Truthfully, working in total solitude every day for years, has slowly transformed me into a anti-social mole man. It is not great for ANYONE to work in total isolation all the time! THIS is gonna force me to talk to lots of people! 2.) more space and more natural light3.) a place to being clients! Ever since I left my last studio....

...on Queen Street......I have found it IMPOSSIBLE to have clients over to see my work. I have felt a bit weird welcoming people into my home, and then having to take them into the dark and scary basement. "Oh, please come down.....pay no attention to that big hole in the ground with the bucket...." (YA - I was totally 'Silence-of-the-Lambs-ing' it!) An outside the house studio - solves that weirdness!​4.) There are some great facilities at Walnut!5.) There is also a 'workshop space' that I can rent so that I can run some (SPOILER HERE) Rob Croxford art classes! Yes, I wanna run a couple workshops this year - a create art - have some nosh - have some laughs - workshop for my clients! Look forward to announcements about that SOON!

​THERE. FIVE great reasons for leaving the comfort of my home studio.Forging a new path of self discovery and artistic fulfillment in a strange new world! HELL-to-the-YA I am a little nervous! But I think that it will be a great opportunity for both me AND prospective collectors!!! RIGHT??????????

So there you go! Look forward to February's blog FILLED with new paintings.....and show announcements...and for now......as I get over my LAS and free myself from my mole-man habits.....be patient....BIG THINGS are happening here soon!!